Okanogan Land Trust

06/10/2026

Friends of the fen, this post is for you.

If you’ve been following along with Bonaparte Meadows, learning about peat, cheering for frogs, showing up at events, reading field notes, or slowly becoming the person who explains rare wetlands to your friends…

There’s a shirt for that.

For the Fen! merch is available through Bonfire.

Wear it for the meadow.
Wear it for the wildlife.
Wear it For the Fen!

Shop here: https: https://www.bonfire.com/for-the-fen-campaign/?productType=3cd0bb77-4ed9-423c-b671-032196d4db05

Buy FOR the FEN!  merchandise that supports Okanogan Land Trust. Featuring Natural Premium Cotton Tees, professionally printed in the USA.

06/06/2026

You stumbled upon the fen fan club.

No one warned you about the frogs. Or the birds.

Or the fact that you’d suddenly have a favorite kind of wetland.

That’s okay. We have updates for that.

🐸 Frog sightings
🐦 Bird surveys
🌿 Field notes
💧 Fen facts
📅 Events and campaign updates

Get Bonaparte Meadows updates delivered to your inbox: https://mailchi.mp/627cec96abdf/olt-fen-updates

Get Updates Delivered to Your Inbox

06/04/2026

Stewardship Notes 🌿 Small point. Big picture. Unexpected Curlew.

What does stewardship look like in the field?

Today, conservationist extraordinaire Michelle Martin walks us through how a single photo point is collected and why those observations matter, as a Long-billed Curlew briefly steals the spotlight.

This is stewardship in action. Learn more @ https://www.okanoganlandtrust.org/

Protecting land with a conservation easement is an important milestone. Stewardship is the ongoing collaboration between Okanogan Land Trust and the landowners who have chosen to conserve and care for these special places.

One photo point on a map may seem small, but together, these observations help us track change, understand the land, and guide long-term care. Over time, they become part of the story of a place and how it continues to evolve.

06/03/2026

The Fen Has Amazing Friends!

Every dollar of our recent $10,000 matching challenge was unlocked, bringing $20,000 directly toward the effort to acquire, protect, and restore Bonaparte Meadows.

This milestone belongs to everyone who gave, shared the campaign, showed up at an event, asked questions, and helped build momentum around this rare peatland and the larger landscape it supports.

Thank you for helping move Bonaparte Meadows one step closer to permanent preservation.

For the Fen! 💚

Sign-Up for Campaign Updates @ https://www.okanoganlandtrust.org/protect-bonaparte-meadows-3/

05/25/2026

Across North Central Washington, the land gives us places to reflect: open hillsides, quiet waterways, working lands, forests, meadows, and trails that hold memory in their own way.

This Memorial Day, we are grateful for the freedoms we share and mindful of the sacrifices that helped make them possible.

From all of us at Okanogan Land Trust, we wish you a meaningful Memorial Day.

05/23/2026

We’re celebrating a groundswell of support. 💚

The For the Fen! campaign has passed $800,000 raised for Bonaparte Meadows.

Thanks to supporters, partners, event-goers, donors, and everyone helping spread the word, we have now raised $805,347 toward our $1.5 million private fundraising goal.

This is a big step toward acquiring and preserving the 745-acre Bonaparte Meadows property, including 260 acres of peat fen, in perpetuity.

Okanogan Land Trust has until July 31 to secure the funding needed for this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Every gift, share, and conversation helps carry this campaign forward.

Thank you for showing up for Bonaparte Meadows.

For the Fen! 🌿

Learn more or make a gift: https://www.okanoganlandtrust.org/protect-bonaparte-meadows-3/

05/23/2026

We’re deeply grateful to North Central Washington Audubon Society for their generous $50,000 pledge in support of For the Fen!

Support like this reflects something powerful: a local community coming together around a place that holds so much of what people love about North Central Washington.

Thank you, NCW Audubon, for your leadership, generosity, and partnership in helping build momentum for Bonaparte Meadows. 💚

For the Fen! 🌿

{{ Protect Bonaparte Meadows, a rare peat fen that stores carbon, holds water and supports wildlife in the Okanogan Highlands. }}

05/22/2026

On International Biodiversity Day, we’re reminded that biodiversity is local, seasonal, and connected across water, plants, wildlife, and habitat. 💚

🌿 Goose eggs tucked into a nest.
🌿 A Ruddy Duck in breeding plumage
🌿 Wetland plants coming alive in saturated soil.
🌿 Insects and aquatic life feeding the larger food web.

Signs of spring may seem small, but together they point to something bigger: a connected landscape at work.

At Bonaparte Meadows, it’s also in the water moving through the landscape helping store, filter, and cool water before it continues downstream, supporting habitat for native trout and salmonids that spawn in the lower stretch of Bonaparte Creek.

And people are part of the story too.

Survey teams, field trip participants, community members, donors, and partners are helping us learn more about what this landscape holds and why connected habitat matters.

This is biodiversity in action: seasonal, connected, and rooted in place.

05/20/2026

Happy World Bee Day!🐝 A healthy landscape hums.🐝

In this photo, a sweat bee rests on a false hedge mustard plant at Bonaparte Meadows. It’s a small moment, but a good reminder that pollinators are woven into the everyday life of a landscape. Thank you KE Conservation Photography for sharing this photo with us.

Across Okanogan County and North Central Washington, bees and other pollinators help keep spring meadows, roadside flowers, backyard gardens, wetlands, orchards, and native plant communities thriving.
Here are a few quick pollinator FAQs for our corner of Washington:

🐝 What is a sweat bee?
Sweat bees are small native bees that often visit flowers for nectar and pollen. Some are attracted to the salt in human sweat, which is how they got their name, but on the landscape, they’re busy little pollinators.

🌿 What helps pollinators most?
Habitat. Native flowers, clean water, connected landscapes, and places left a little wild all help support pollinator populations.

💧 Do wetlands matter for bees too?
Absolutely. Wet meadows and wetlands provide flowering plants, seasonal moisture, and habitat edges that support insects throughout the growing season.

🐛 Are pollinators only bees?
Nope. Butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds, and even some bats help pollinate plants too.
Across our region, pollinators are part of a much larger story connected by water, plants, soil, seasons, and habitat.

Sometimes the smallest things help hold an ecosystem together.
Photo: Karen Edwards Meadows